ABSTRACT

To the Editor.—We wish to correct a misleading inference drawn from our data by Dr Maltzman1 in his recent letter. From a prepublication manuscript, Dr Maltzman drew the figure that only 10% of our clinical sample were engaging in controlled and asymptomatic drinking at long-term follow-up. This figure is correct, but is erroneously contrasted with a recovery rate of 60% to 65% that he describes as "the industry norm for abstinence-oriented programs." This quoted figure, based on a comment made in an interview, is a gross and unsubstantiated estimate of outcomes among "those who finish treatment" and is quite at variance with empirical evidence from properly conducted clinical trials. In a review restricted to outcome studies with at least one year of follow-up data, Costello2 concluded that the average success rate (abstinent plus improved cases) after alcoholism treatment is 26%. A similar picture emerged from Vaillant's3

Figures

Tables

References

Letters

The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with
the extent of their participation in the activity. Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.

This feature is provided as a courtesy. By using it you agree that that you are requesting the material solely for personal, non-commercial use, and that it is subject to the AMA's Terms of Use. The information provided in order to email this article will not be shared, sold, traded, exchanged, or rented. Please refer to The JAMA Network's Privacy Policy for additional information.

Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.

What is this ?

Article rental gives users the ability to access the full text of an article and its supplementary content for 24 hours.
Access to the PDF is only available via article purchase.